From London's "Entartete Musik" series. Eisler rejected the large-scale symphonic form during his famous turn away from concert music in the late 1920s, but, paradoxically, this is a monumental choral symphony of 11 movements based on poetry by Brecht and Silone. All but the last movement showcase Eisler's distinctive style of twelve-tone composition. The texts, set in the period of exile from Nazi Germany, explore the political and psychological landscapes of despair, defiance and hope. Decca/Londonnow a subsidiary of Universal Musichas withdrawn this significant recording by the world-famous Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra from the market, so only a few copies are left at the Amazon US and UK websites. Buy it while you have the chance!

When the last copy of "Deutsche Sinfonie" disappears, this sampler (from London/Decca's now-abandoned "Entartete Musik" series of music suppressed by the Nazis) may still be available. It includes the impressive choral Prelude (Präludium) from Eisler's symphony.

Heiner Goebbels organized, rehearsed and arranged some of the music for this contemporary interpretation of Eisler's songs and chamber music. It has introduced a new generation of European audiences to Eisler, and now the performance can be purchased on CD. Press reviews are available on the ECM website.

Still available on Amazon's German site, this excellent CD includes the experimental Chamber Symphonyone of the best examples of Eisler's communicative style of twelve-tone and atonal composition. Based on his 1940 film score for a documentary about the Arctic ice mass, Eisler added electronic keyboards to the orchestrationthen a novelty both in film and concert music. Also on this album: the partly-atonal Small Symphony, Five Pieces for Orchestra, and the Storm Suite for Orchestra. The sample is from the Small Symphony.

Includes the film-score-based Suites Nos. 1, 2, 4 and 5; Theme with Variations from the film score for The Long March; and the twelve-tone Chamber Symphony. Good performances by GDR ensembles in the 1970s, digitally remastered by Edel Berlin Classics.

Includes the partly-atonal Small Symphony, Five Pieces for Orchestra, Scherzo with Solo Violin, Rhapsody for Large Orchestra with Soprano Solo after Words from Goethe's Faust, the Winter Battle Suite, and a song from the theater music for Schiller's William Tell.

Includes the Scherzo for String Trio; Palmström (Studies on Twelve-Tone Rows); Duo for Violin and Cello; Newspaper Clippings (Zeitungsauschnitte) for Voice and Piano; Prelude and Fuge on B-A-C-H for String Trio; Sonata for Flute, Oboe and Harp; Sonata for Violin and Piano (the Travel Sonata); Nonet Nr. 1; Septet Nr. 2 (based on music for Charlie Chaplin's film Circus, never completed because of Eisler's forced departure from the U.S.). This album, like the following, spans Eisler's early chamber works in atonal and twelve-tone style, and later works based on film and stage music.

With the same title as the preceding album, this is a two-CD set of Eisler's music for small ensembles, including the only recordings currently available of early Eisler atonal compositions from the period before his break with Arnold Schönberg. Includes Divertimento for Wind Quintet, Hanns Eisler's Diary, Suite Nr. 5, Nonet Nr. 2, Galgenlieder, Tempo der Zeit, Fourteen Ways of Describing the Rain, and Movements for Nonet.

The second CD of Christoph Keller's compilation of Eisler's chamber music, it includes the Suite for Septet Nr. 1, based on American children's songs, the Septet Nr. 2, written originally as incidental music for a projected Charlie Chaplin movie (The Circus), the 1938 String Quartet (our featured RealAudio sample), the twelve-tone Prelude and Fuge on B-A-C-H for String Trio, and other works. This recording is now difficult to find.

An interesting historical document for aficionados of band music. The Central Orchestra of the National People's Army was arguably one of the world's finest military bands; it went out of business along with the rest of the East German establishment in October 1990. Its legendary director, Gerhart Baumann, orchestrated this Marxist reinterpretation of the traditional Prussian Zapfenstreich (Great Striking of the Taps)a torchlight military ceremony with roots in the Napoleonic Wars. Baumann is an extraordinarily gifted arranger and here he skillfully blends together German military marches, horn signals and fanfares with the militant protest songs of the European revolutionary movementincluding an instrumental version of the GDR national anthem composed by Eisler. Eisler would probably have been amused, if not horrified, by the incorporation of his music into a Marxist-Leninist revival of Prussian military tradition: the result certainly shows the psychological distance travelled by German Communism from its origins as a persecuted opposition movement to its final form as a state religion, and in any case is a musical experience worth having.

This is a discography of Eisler CDs of orchestral, chamber and piano music, minus those selections that we recommend in our list of the top fourteen Eisler albums. Links are provided to e-commerce sites for those CDs that are currently available.